Pendleton will have an array of choices regarding where it can spend its share of the mammoth federal $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act.
A kick in the pants to the closure of Aspen Springs Psychiatric Hospital in Hermiston.
The reports from the Department of Human Services Critical Incident Review Team are some of the most heartbreaking things that the state of Oregon produces.
Oregon lawmakers did something good recently when they approved Senate Bill 513, a measure that requires high school students to complete one semester of civics before they graduate.
A tip of the hat to Umatilla County for moving down from high to moderate risk this week.
Now more than a year on, state legislators across the country are taking steps to check the nearly unlimited emergency powers governors have assumed to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Oregon Legislature is poised to approve yet another gun mandate and while the battle lines over such issues are clearly drawn, the real lesson for voters is they must remain involved and w…
A tip of the hat to Arbor Day activities, including communities’ spring cleanup events coming up soon and a giveaway of 1,500 trees in Hermiston sponsored by the city and the Rotary Club on Sa…
State Senate President Peter Courtney held a news conference before the 2021 legislative session to announce steps to keep the legislative process accessible to Oregonians.
Tax hikes are never popular in a nation founded on the principal of limited government, but occasionally a sacrifice from taxpayers is necessary.
A kick in the pants to everyone involved in the illegal dumping of radioactive waste in an Arlington landfill.
In crafting his plan for the removal of the dams on the lower Snake River, Rep. Mike Simpson has managed to forge consensus between farm, shipping and environmental interests on his idea. They…
Data accumulated by Umatilla County Health Department recently showed area Hispanic residents made up a disproportionately high number of COVID cases during the past year, raising troubling qu…
A tip of the hat to plans to demolish and replace what’s left of the Thorn Hollow Bridge much sooner than expected.
Rural Oregon is facing a difficult post-COVID economic recovery. The $1.9 trillion federal coronavirus relief package will undoubtedly help, but without addressing some long-standing barriers …
The local area received some good news last week with the announcement that the Community Action Program of East Central Oregon will receive a large grant to help transform a former local hote…
A tip of the hat to Wil Phinney, who is retired after a long career in journalism in the area.
Policy disagreements, partisanship and the walkouts can give Oregonians a distorted picture of what their Oregon Legislature is like. Journalists — and certainly this editorial page — tend to …
Jessica Barnett died when she was 17. She had started fainting when she was 12. It looked like a seizure. Her lips would go blue. She was put on epilepsy medication. The fainting didn’t stop.
A kick in the pants to efforts that seem to come up each legislative session to reduce access to public records.
Do you think Gov. Kate Brown should do more to get schools to reopen? Do you think more should be done to vaccinate seniors sooner?
The fight for more transparency is more important now than ever before, and one of our most important jobs as a newspaper is to consistently push to ensure the light of clarity shines into eve…
A tip of the hat to those recognized at the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce’s Distinguished Citizens Awards.
Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are backing a plan to cancel up to $50,000 for federal student loan borrowers.
The federal stimulus checks helped a lot of Oregonians out when they needed it. And it is also going to help out Oregon government — about $100 million in federal stimulus payments is going to…
Oregon lawmakers at the state and national level do far more work regarding unintended consequences when they craft new legislation.
A tip of the hat to the snow plow drivers, electrical line workers, plumbers, truck drivers, first responders and others who worked through the state’s heavy snowfall to help keep people safe,…
When the East Oregonian and other newspapers request access to information from the government, it sometimes hits the “Wall of No.”
There is often no reasonable way to account for some of the bills that are introduced every legislative session in Salem, and a proposed law to end police contracts with schools — in effect en…
A tip of the hat to Steve Myren, the former Morrow County undersheriff who will be honored on Sunday, Feb. 14, by an emergency vehicle procession through the county after his death on Feb. 1.
On occasion we are reminded that the budget process used by the Oregon Legislature and state agencies is a bit curious.
Elected officials rarely hear praise when they construct a meaningful program that makes sense, but the Pendleton City Council deserves to be lauded for its Save Our Amazing Restaurants program.
Government agencies have referred to Umatilla County’s flood of February 2020 as a “500-year flood,” and we would be thrilled if it is another 500 years before a disaster of that magnitude hit…
Gov. Kate Brown made the right decision last week when she backpedaled on a decision by the state’s health authority to screen some data regarding COVID-19 deaths.
Frustration. Confusion. Fear. Anger.
A tip of the hat to our area public libraries and all of the ways they serve the community.
Raise your glass for mental health. Alcohol drinkers could be contributing $746 million in new taxes every year to raise money for mental health.
There is good news on the COVID-19 front this week, as Umatilla County expands immunization plans for area educators.
A tip of the hat to the city of Pendleton for considering significant financial assistance to restaurants as the pandemic drags on.
Fulfilling a campaign promise, Joe Biden wants to boost the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
In retrospect, the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic was lackluster at best and nothing illustrates that better than the recent confusion — and apparent lack of planning — over the di…
A tip of the hat to Umatilla County for ramping up its vaccine distribution abilities so quickly and effectively that the county was able to vaccinate hundreds of residents against COVID-19 in…
The resignation of Oregon’s former public records advocate, Ginger McCall, still echoes with consequences.
Last week on this page we wrote that we believed newly elected U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz had a bright future in the halls of the Congress. We still believe that to be true, but it’s clear the fres…
A kick in the pants to the ever-widening divisions in America that led to an angry mob overrunning our nation’s Capitol as members of Congress fled for their safety.
A state task force is meeting regularly, charged by the Legislature to figure out how a single -payer health care plan might work in Oregon. It’s a big deal.
Ontario lawyer Cliff Bentz has some big shoes to fill.
A tip of the hat to the Pendleton Round-Up Association’s Tough Enough To Wear Pink campaign and its donation of $11,000 raised in 2020 to help local cancer support organizations.
A new year beckons just ahead of us, and for some the theme now may be “good riddance” to 2020.
In today’s pop culture dominated climate, politicians rarely receive much thanks, but the work of U.S. Rep. Greg Walden stands out as a classic example of what an elected leader should do once…
The following is perhaps the most famous example of a child wanting to know if Santa is real.
Trees might be leafing out by the time most of us get to decide whether to roll up a sleeve and have a needle pierce our skin and deliver a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
A tip of the hat to the health care workers who volunteered for the first round of COVID-19 vaccinations this week, and to the participants in clinical trials who volunteered to have the vacci…
Winter is coming.
The arrival of federal CARES Act money to the county is good news, but it isn’t going to be enough and that means lawmakers will need to get back to work to find out where more cash will come …
